Effect of probiotics and rice on ileal microbial count and intestinal morphometry in broiler chicken

An experiment was conducted in the Department of Poultry Science, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy to find out the effect of probiotics and rice on ileal microbial count and intestinal morphometry in broiler chicken for a period of 42 days. A total of 144, day-old Ven Cobb 430 Y broiler chicks were allotted randomly to six dietary treatment groups with three replicates of eight birds each. The treatment groups were T1-standard broiler ration (SBR1), T2- SBR1 with 0.05 per cent probiotic mixture, T3- SBR1 with 0.1 per cent probiotic mixture, T4- 50 per cent of maize from SBR1 replaced by rice (SBR2), T5- SBR2 with 0.05 per cent probiotic mixture and T6- SBR2 with 0.1 per cent probiotic mixture. The dietary inclusion of rice did not affect the E. coli count and ileal pH. However the coliform count was significantly (p